Diverse Conference on Community Land Rights Culminates in Strategic Action Plans to Increase Rights Recognition

On October 4-5, over 300 people from around 60 countries gathered in Stockholm, Sweden at the international conference Reducing Inequality in a Turbulent World: Scaling-up strategies to secure indigenous, community, and women’s land rights. Three strategy sessions—on rural and indigenous women’s rights and leadership in collective lands, strategies and mechanisms to scale up implementation from local to national level, and connecting and leveraging the existing international support structures to advance indigenous and community land rights—developed action plans to increase rights recognition. All sessions included participants from the private sector. Conference participants worked together to identify ways to connect and leverage global and grassroots efforts to drive progress on the recognition of indigenous and community land rights.

Read the full conference outcomes document in English, Spanish, and French. 

The conference brought together leaders from indigenous and community organizations, the private sector, civil society, and governments from across the world. It aimed to raise awareness of the recognition of indigenous and community land rights as a priority strategy to decrease inequality and deliver on global goals, assess the status of promising instruments to secure community rights, and encourage greater action, support, and commitment from key stakeholders.

The conference was co-organized by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the Swedish International Agriculture Network Initiative (SIANI), and the International Foundation for Science (IFS). It was held in collaboration with the Land Rights Now alliance, the Interlaken Group, and LandMark. Devex was the media partner.